If volunteering were a travel destination, which location would you sign up for?

When you look at many of the biggest travel industry companies in the world, most of them were founded in the locations where people either travel from or travel to. And in many cases some of them still remain in the same location, for instance like Hotelbeds and our global headquarters in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

As the tourism industry has expanded way beyond anyone’s wildest expectations over the last thirty years, many of the most popular destinations have started to think about how to manage the welcome dollars in a more sustainable fashion.

Equally many travel companies have begun to think about what responsibility they have ensuring that today’s most popular cities and locations remain conserved for the next generation to visit.

And that’s why earlier this year Hotelbeds introduced its Corporate Volunteering Program, which had its initial rollout in Orlando and was finally launched worldwide last month. Through the implementation of the program, around 50 NGOs from all over the globe are now able to benefit from the company’s support.

We particularly believe in giving back to the local communities we work in and what more important city to focus on than Los Angeles, where millions or people stay in hotels booked via the Hotelbeds system every year?

Last Friday, me and my colleagues from the JBS team, a division with Hotelbeds, deployed its first volunteering initiative at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. Our whole local team of 12 were busy helping the facility with its food sorting activities all afternoon.

We wanted to select a charity work that would help us get closer as a team, so members can go together and contribute together and be proud of the work we were doing, and this charity is very close to our heart. We firmly believe that for any team to be truly successful it has to engage in activities that bring them closer as a group and charity work is the perfect format for us.

Going forward, the plan is to volunteer on a quarterly basis as part of JBS team building activities and to start giving back to the local community.

As a result from the integration of GTA and Tourico Holidays brands into Hotelbeds over the last year, the JBS team has now become part of Hotelbeds and we are responsible for developing the China-US Corridor. Already we are responsible for over 2.5% of all inbound Chinese hotel reservations into the US market, but have plans to expand that even further!

Given our US and China focus, in the future we’d like to find some volunteering initiatives that combine these two great cultures. Does anyone have any suggestions for a charity event we can become involved with for around the Chinese New Year period?